*mom’s edit: If you would like to send a dear elder, every day at noon they print up all the dear elder letters and deliver them for free to the missionaries. Lisi loves getting them, and it makes her happy. So, if you would like to send even just a quick note, it would make her day. The website is dearelder.com and her info is Hermana Hong ARG-SF OCT04 unit 178)
“Es un privilegio, no es un sacrificio.” (It is a prividge, not a sacrifice… her district has this as a bit of a theme.)
Hola a todos! I swear i just blinked and now I’ve been a missionary for over a week, and I LOVE IT. Everything is so great and spiritual and in Spanish.
I can’t express how happy I have been here in the MTC. I have the best little district, the best companion, and the best little family that writes me dearelders all the time. The Spirit is so strong here all the time. Even when we are asleep 😉
The first day I got here we had this meeting with the MTC Presidency, and we sang this primary song, “We will bring the world his truth.” BUT they got all tricky on us and switched up the words so we sang “we ARE NOW the Lord’s missionaries” instead of “we WILL BE the Lord’s missionaries.” And there I was sitting on the front row of this meeting, and I just start crying BECAUSE I AM NOW ONE OF THE LORD’S MISSIONARIES. I haven’t ever felt this much joy and peace and love in my life (well there are some close seconds buuuuuuuuuut).
My cute little district has been through a lot together in this past week. We are all intermediate level Spanish speakers (#blessed), but this one Elder was like fluent, so he got transferred to the advanced class. Tears were shed by all. We miss Elder Dameron already. I guess it was good practice for when we leave the MTC. We are all going separate ways: some to Argentina (another Elder is going to my mission), Texas, El Salvador, and Paraguay. We have an abundance of fun here in the MTC. The Elders KILL me; they are just hilarious and fresh out of high school. Yesterday they were eating these popsicles at dinner, and they kept getting stuck on the Elder’s mouths bc they were so cold. But they just kept putting these freaking popsicles back in their mouths! Anyways I love them and the other Hermanas in my district. My cute companion is named Hermana Barlow. She is from Michigan, and she is almost 23 years old (and I was worried that I would be the oldest one lololol). We are teaching this “investigator” named Jorge, and that is fun. The first lesson we had was super humbling, because we thought we knew all this Spanish, but then we didn’t understand like any of his Spanish. DEAD. But the other two lessons have been LOVELY. Other than that, Spanish is coming along really well!
This week I learned that this truly is the Lord’s work, and I am so honored, humbled, and privileged to represent Him all day every day. I LOVE THIS WORK. I get to be His hands to the people in Santa Fe, Argentina.
I love you all. Remember that God loves you and wants to hear from you, so say some prayers to Him.
Hermana Elisyn Hong 